Monday, November 28, 2011

Imagine a country whose military is able to sequester it's citizens without trial and detain them indefinitely. Sounds like a movie premise or a third world dictatorship right? This is what is happening behind closed doors in the US Senate.

What is more surprising that is John McCain is drafting this in secret to detain US citizens. You know the same group who likes to collect firearms, store food for emergencies or "cling" to bibles. Shame on your Senator, I would have thought you of all people would despise imprisonment without due course. I can not believe that after spending 5 years as a POW you would even consider this. I would never have thought that this would come to be in the United States. Its a very scary sign to what is in store later down the line.

* Just as a side note I have written both my Senator and Senator McCain. I am pretty sure being a veteran and a gun owner I am on one of their watch lists anyways.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

So I am going to be in and out of the turkey stupor tomorrow so prudence dictates that I wish everyone a happy and safe turkey day. Had I not seen the following picture I would have forgotten completely how close Thanksgiving is.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

A little rough this weekend our son caught croup somehow and his fever is waking both of us up at strange hours. Just when I thought we were over the children sounding like baby seals. On the plus side his mother said he likes snuggle when he is sick. Otherwise you would never be able to catch him as he is always running around smiling and laughing. Anyways I apologize over the sparseness of my post lately. Should be picking up soon as we hope his fever is breaking.

Friday, November 18, 2011

My Daughter E is going to her first school class play. Has me a bit nostalgic for how big this little girl is getting. Apparently they are going to have a feast in class and act out certain parts for the feast. She of course got selected to be one of the Indians. Which brought up another memory of a Thanksgiving play

Forgive the sub-captions but you get the idea. The funny part is that she did bring her Pocahontas dress with her to participate in the class play. Lets hope she does not get any strange ideas when she puts on that dress.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Spent most of the night with friends and now I am paying for it this morning. The normally scheduled post will instead be replaced with this gratuitous Lego violence which has graced my bookmark for some time. I now share it with you.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

I am not sure that many saw this today but I think it deserves to be repeated. I have a Facebook account which I use mostly for friends and family. Don't bother looking I made up a fictitious name for the account so you probably won't find me.

Anyways I am subscribed to a number of different companies I like and follow because they represent who I like doing business with. Imagine my surprise when I see 5.11 post a product placement shot with Pamela Anderson. I was shocked at first but that turned into disgust and my sentiments were echoed by other posters ranging from utter disbelief to downright disgusted.
So with mighty computer in hand I sent the 5.11 company my angry missive that went like this:

"You have a Facebook endorsement of Pamela Anderson posing with one of your products. I would, as a weapon friendly store, reconsider this. Mrs Anderson is a supporter for many anti-gun measures as well as a supporter for the current administration we have now. If this post is not removed with an immediate apology you will lose many customers, including my business. I would suggest doing research before posting this trash in support of your products."

I fully admit its a little harsh and 5.11 fully has every right to display what pictures they want to display but Pamela Anderson? I was pleasantly surprised when not twenty minutes later the picture was gone. Like nothing had happened earlier that day. So I meander about my evening getting the kids tucked in and getting the house back in order when I find this in my email:

"mmasse,

I wanted to let you know that the photo of Pam Anderson has already been removed. We definitely did not mean to offend anyone by sharing the photo. We had the honor of providing the uniforms for the security at the Carrier Classic last week and one of our photos in the album included Ms. Anderson holding our hat. She does not officially endorse our products nor is she an official representative of the brand. Please feel free to contact me directly with any further questions or issues. We hope to hear that you will remain a fan of 5.11 Tactical and that we can continue to earn your business.

Thank you!

5.11 TACTICAL"

So apparently I was not the only person writing in to voice their concern but the deletion was a vast improvement. The email itself was the icing on the cake. So I responded with this email;

"Thank you for your immediate response to this issue. Sorry if I sounded a bit hasty and harsh in my last email but I was legitimately shocked when I saw a known gun grabber posing with your product. I really do appreciate the time you took to send this email and your efforts to make this right with your fans speak volumes about your company’s moral compass. Keep up the good work."

So glad to see a few companies that give a crap about their base and are willing to change the way they do business to make things right. Kudos 5.11. (I wish I would have snagged the picture but it was gone before I thought about saving it)

Monday, November 14, 2011

So many of you saw the case of the kids wearing the flag during a Cinco Ce Mayo in Californiastan. The kids were sent home and then promptly sued the school. What is interesting is the federal judge ruled against the kids saying that it did put them in a dangerous situation. So this initially got my hackles up. Kids in America sent home for wearing a flag during a "Mexican" holiday?

Upon remembering an old lesson I had in the boy scouts; I think the judge erred in his ruling. Instead of taking this on as a safety issue there is another law that covers this. United States Code Title 4 Chapter 1 - The Flag. More importantly

"Section 8. Respect for flag

d. The flag should never be used as wearing apparel, bedding, or drapery.
It should never be festooned, drawn back, nor up, in folds, but always
allowed to fall free. Bunting of blue, white, and red, always arranged
with the blue above, the white in the middle, and the red below, should
be used for covering a speaker's desk, draping the front of the
platform, and for decoration in general."

So in reality people who are wearing clothing with the flag on it are actually violating US Code, believe it or not. So realistically they should have gone in with a flag bearer, piper and a drummer to make their point legally. The whole safety issue is a bunch of politcal correctness (PC) malarkey. Had I been one of the parents there, I would have gone after the Principal's job for not having a safe school for my kids. I mean if one shirt can cause open riots they must not be able to safety teach my child in an enclosed classroom. Perhaps the students should ask for permission to reenact theMexican - American War to which California was also a key player in.

So in a nutshell the boys got sent home for some PC BS. They violated the US Code for displaying the flag as apparel. Finally, their parents went the wrong way with the lawsuit. If the school head administrator fears for their safety; there must be something inherently wrong with this school.

Anyways keep this in mind when you see Old Glory as bed sheets and take the time to tell the store owner that he is violating not only US Code but degrading the Flag itself.

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Skip to 0:20 to be amazed. Yes that is chocolate syrup just rolling off of that shoe. So as an outdoors person and a shooter what will this mean for me? Well if applied to weapons parts this means no more rust for one. Second it means I can treat my outdoors clothes and never get wet again! Treat your tiles in your house and wallah no more dried up spills. The possibilities are endless; Car windshields, blades, gloves, carpet, hospital operating rooms, boats ect ect.

I sure hope that this stuff is not hyper flammable though, because putting it out with water would be kinda pointless.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Rare color WWII pictures of young Americans getting the job done. Too bad the 1% percent are missing the patriotism that this great country was founded and built upon. You can see the rest of the photo album (hosted by http://www.ibtimes.com) here.

God Bless the USA and my personal thanks to those who have served and those who are still serving. For those of who gave the ultimate sacrifice you are not forgotten.

Being a computer geek at heart imagine my surprise when I saw this over at Geek.com

Besides the narrator sounding like he has a nasty chest cold this is not the first time I have seen this concept. Thinkgeek has one on their website here. So I have two thoughts here; First that it will only fill a supportive role only and will probably never leave an officers car. Most violent encounters officers encounter are out of the vehicle so the application of this actually being used is dramatically reduced. Second you have to hold the darn thing. How useful is this going to be if you can only hold it in one small area? How silly would that office look carrying a clipboard to an active shooting incident. "Paul what the heck are you going to do? Write him a ticket?"

This would be money better spent on something that actually helps the officers in the field. Perhaps some range time with a member of Special Forces perhaps?

Monday, November 7, 2011

So there I was perusing through some of the evening news when I saw that ABC will be hosting a Veterans Day Extreme Home Makeover. Which sounds like a very worthy cause right? I was then very shocked to see the list of "stars" hosting this event.

Whoopi Goldberg? The same person who walked out of a show because Bill O'Rielly stated "Muslims killed Americans on 9/11". Which is the same reason why are troops are deployed overseas in the first place? The same person who labeled Bush as a killer and a cheap thug and has not said anything regarding Obama's tactics of eliminating political targets (much less gunwalker). Then there is George Lopez. Who from his comments from getting let go on cable was very unflattering to those who are of Caucasian ancestry. Robin Williams another liberal favorite who delcared on George Bush's exit "The era of rehab is over".

There are a few more that I missed but herein lies the point. Why would a left leaning, White House propaganda organization fund and showcase a veteran show and have people like, Whoopie, Robin and George on its show. Fundamentally, I know, given their politcal dispositions keeping the peace through armed conflict is strictly against what they believe in. It is my opinion that given the sagging popularity of the current administration this is in part the lefts way of giving back to the little people, which may or may not equal votes later on. Heck I wouldn't be surprised if the big O didn't show up (no not Oprah).

I for one will be out on the 11th celebrating with my family and other Veterans, old and young. To whom I, as well as many others, are proud of the fact that we are Veterans. Remembering our service and those brothers who made the ultimate sacrifice.

Sunday, November 6, 2011

With all the protests going on (some with Acorn some not) and the economic barometer is pointing to a triple dip depression shown partly here. It is becoming more evident that, we as preppers, must take great cautions on how to guard our caches.

But how do we do this? How do you hide something that you have worked so hard on. I was pondering the exact same thing when I happened upon this video. It would be so simple to take a closet and cover it with a converted book case. I would, however, caution about using a regular door hinge. There are plenty of concealed hinges on the market now from $30-300 and can be found via Google.

My second thought on this is for anyone who has a few old cars on there property and converting the trunks to a underground storage cache. You could even use one to conceal it to a SHTF bunker à la the movie RED. Most people don't even look at old rusty cars on your property and using them for storage makes sense.

One final thought would to be using existing items in you house. Take the couch put a Velcro backing on it, install a couple of hooks in the back and you have a weapons storage that is very accessible and totally hidden from any guests who walk in. Or even the attic, I mean really how many people go looking in the attic for food or supplies.

So when the horde comes a calling and you take cover remember to hide your storage as well.

Saturday, November 5, 2011

The title of this blog comes from an old Nautical term. To "Nail your colours to the Mast" was to let the other ship know you will never surrender or run down the colors when you were defeated. More importantly in present context it means to hold fast to what you believe in. So within this blog shall be a catalog of sorts, of stories that I believe true to my moral compass as it were.

Which segues into a brief synopsis who I am. I consider myself to be a Constitutionalist; partly due to too many politicians think they have authority from who they are and not the document which grants them that power. Limited government was the way our founders made this Country and that tenet should still hold true today. I am a father of 2 wonderful children (I will refer to them as E and D). E is a very precocious young lady of 5 years of age and D is the daredevil at 2 years of age (defined by his having more stitches than either myself or my wife). My wife who is in the medical field is my rock and from time to time picks me up again when I have lost my way. I was a member of the Armed Services for 8 years and Veteran of the Persian Gulf war. After my brief military career I went to College and moved around a bit till we found a great home up north.

This is pretty much who my core is for right now. I am sure as time passes more of who I am will invariable make its way to the surface. Don't be afraid to ask questions and tease me along the way. I see that a few of you already have settled in to that already, thanks for reading!

Friday, November 4, 2011

So with the prodding of a few people that I followed I have decided to start my own blog. I will do my best to keep my points short, concise and to the point. Frothing may occur and rain gear might be advisable from time to time. So with out any further to do I humbly present my new blog